nose was a cheery
plaid--blue patches neatly veined with red. Jack looked from one to the
other and forgot his own impatience in anxiety for their welfare.

"Girls, you look frozen! Cut away up to that house, and ask them to let
you sit by the fire for half an hour. Much better than hanging about
here. I'll come for you when we are ready."

The girls glanced doubtfully at the squat, white house, which in truth
looked the reverse of hospitable; but the prospect of a fire being
all-powerful at the moment, they turned obediently, and made their way
up a worn gravel path, leading to the shabbiest of painted doors.

Margaret knocked; Peg rapped; then Margaret knocked again; but nobody
came, and not a sound broke the stillness within. The girls shivered and
told each other disconsolately there was no one to come. Who _would_
live in such a dreary house, in such a dreary, solitary waste, if it
were possible to live anywhere else? Then they strolled round the corner
of the house, and caught the cheerful glow of firelight, which settled
the question, once for all.

"Let's try the back door!" said Margaret, and the back door being found,
they knocked again, but knocked in vain. Then Peg gave an impatient
shake to the handle, and lo and behold! it turned in her hand, and swung
slowly open on its hinges, showing a glimpse of a trim little kitchen,
and beyond that a narrow passage leading to the front door.

"Is any one there? Is any one there?" chanted Margaret loudly. She took
a hesitating step into the passage--took two; repeated the cry in an
even higher key; but still no answer came, still the same uncanny
silence brooded over all.

The girls stood still, and gazed in each other's eyes; in each face were
reflected the same emotions--curiosity, interest, a tinge of fear.

What could it mean? Could there be some one within these silent walls
who was _ill_, helpless, in need of aid?

"I think," declared Margaret firmly, "that it is our duty to look. . . ."
In after days she always absolved herself from any charge of curiosity
in this decision, and declared that her action was dictated solely by a
feeling of duty; but her hearers had their doubts. Be that as it might,
the decision fell in well with Peg's wishes, and the two girls walked
slowly down the passage, repeating from time to time the cry "Is any one
there?" the while their eyes busily scanned all they could see, and drew
Sherlock Holmes conclusions therefrom.

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